Oro funds programme

THE Oro provincial government will allocate K250,000 to co-fund the Mineral Resources Authority’s (MRA) geological mapping programme in the province.
Project manager Morris Kageni announced the provincial government’s assistance last week at Kamondo village in Ward 7 of Kokoda district, Sohe.
The funding will come from the Provincial Services Improvement Programme. It is expected to benefit the province in terms of acquiring a baseline data.
He said the Oro government recognised the importance of the work being carried out by the MRA.
The information acquired from this survey would be instrumental in making informed decisions.
Authority executive manager in the geological survey division Nathan Mosusu said the funding would be used on the second phase of the programme.
Mosusu said specific areas of spending would be logistics and security arrangements on the ground.
The objective of the mapping programme is to collect geological data and update information they had which was collected by mineral explorers in the 1800s and 1900s.
The maps from this period constitute current geological maps.  The new data will be made available to stakeholders especially potential mining investors, landowners and the provincial government.
“The data collected will be used to attract mineral investment to the province.
In addition, the same data can be used for agricultural and other infrastructural development purposes such as roads and bridges,” he said.